We can’t believe another Valentine party is here! Our friend Michele has an annual Valentine’s party and it is always a wonderful time; good food, great conversation and a cozy fire.

And every year we try to make something for the girls to wear for this special party. Last year we posted all the dresses and skirts on our blog. This year we kicked it up a notch and not only made something for the girlies, but for us as well.

We took an ordinary men’s t-shirt that we bought for $5.00.

We cut it here, added some elastic there and painted a heart on it.

( . . . and yes, Melany is wearing a coat to paint the hearts. It is really cold in the citymade workshop!)

The results were, as usual, adorable!

We also arm-weaved some matching scarves.

Melany and the girls looking lovely!

Carol and Ava looking cute!

And more girlies, smiling and ready to go to the party!

And you can bet, we made you-know-whats of our selves at the party! Thanks Michele:)

Well…after 9 long months of planning, hard work and a long day of labor we are happy to announce…

there are curtains up in the Spiehs’ living room

We started with a geometric pattern that I saw online. I took this pattern and created a large stencil with stencil paper.

I bought four plain white curtain panels from Target. I did this because I wanted the grommets already in the fabric. Grommets are a pain to install and I figured that this project was already going to be hard enough.

Next I picked my paint color. I used a flat latex paint.

Using a spray adhesive, we positioned the stencil on the curtain and rolled on the paint with a foam roller.

And we did this over and over and over and….

about four hours and four blisters later we had covered four panels of curtains!

This was a pretty gutsy project but we did it. Key word there WE. This is definitely a two-man job.

I am so happy with how they turned out. My living room finally looks like a living room…well worth the wait.

Spring is coming…at least we hope. We have definitely been getting the itch to clean and organize. The Spiehs house recently had an “operation closet redo”. I really wanted to utilize the doors in our coat closet and hung a towel bar for scarves and hooks for wall totes. I found a use for some of my beautiful IKEA fabric. I used the totes for all of the girls hats and mittens. Now each girl has their own easily accessible tote.

The Spiehs’ girls have always wanted bean bag chairs. Well, “always for a long time,” as Ava puts it. To be honest I dreaded this project because I thought it would be hard, tedious and boring. However, it was just the opposite. It was pretty fast and easy and very rewarding.

I found three adorable coordinating fabrics to use. Good fabric always makes a project more fun!

We have cute little reading nook at the top of upstairs that became the new home for these bean bag chairs.

Here is our usual model on the bean bag chairs. (All of the other models are in school all day long so it’s up to Caroline…at least she is cute).

She just so happens to be holding the purse that I made her for Christmas as well…good girl.

Carol and I really enjoy making gifts for each other’s kiddos. The girls, and sometimes boys, are very interested in what projects we are working on and love it when we make something for them.

For Christmas this year, Carol made Anna and Lauren this awesome basket organizer. It has inside and outside pockets and came complete with some of their favorite things: pencils, erasers, stickers and tape! The girls love their baskets and always have them loaded up with supplies on their desks.

Carol knows that Caroline loves baby dolls right now so a matching Caroline-Baby doll pj set was a perfect gift. You can tell Caroline is special because Carol even used bias tape on the pajamas….we hate bias tape!